[.ca] The Second Saladin (ISBN 0440221862)

fuhgedaboudit ditto:
I concur that this is not the most exciting book Stephen Hunter ever wrote. And also that this is MUCH better than "Spanish Gambit". It's not as good as "Master Sniper", but that shouldn't be interpreted as a recommendation for that THIRD of Stephen Hunter's three 'learning novels'. Your Stephen Hunter collection isn't complete without these 3 novels, so go ahead and buy them. Keep them by your bed to read when you need to go to sleep because you want to get up early in the morning. Works for me. Do NOT keep any of the Bob Lee Swagger/Earl Swagger books in the same room where you're suppose to be sleeping. They call you in the middle of the night, you find yourself turning on the bedlight, clamping reading glasses to bleary eyes, and reading just ONE more chapter before I go back to sleep, honest! Jerry the (Yeah, but it's never just one, is it?) Geek PS: Hunter's single non-Swagger novel that I can recommend is The Day Before Midnight. Store that with Bob the Nailer books; it's non-putdownable.

You may be disappointed...I was:
I made the mistake of reading this novel after such great Hunter novels as Dirty White Boys, the Bob the Nailer trilogy, and the Day Before Midnight. With those books as my point of reference, this one didn't have a chance. It's painfully obvious that the Second Saladin is one of Hunter's early works (but believe me...he gets MUCH better). The novel starts out with some great action as Ulu Beg heads across the Mexican Border into SW United States on an unmentioned covert mission to assasinate a major political figure. Enter Paul Chardy, who lived and killed with Beg in Afganistan several years earlier. However, fate entered and Chardy had to double-cross his friend and now must enter back into the world of covert operations to thwart the assasination. Great premise, but lacking in the energy and action that becomes Hunter's trademark in his later works. This novel just seems to kick back and relax. We don't really get to know Beg or Chardy too well, a strength of Hunter's later works as well. Overall, this isn't a bad piece of work, but definitely pales in comparison with Hunter's other novels. If you've read any of the books referenced above, you may want to take a pass on this one.

You may be disappointed...I was:
I made the mistake of reading this novel after such great Hunter novels as Dirty White Boys, the Bob the Nailer trilogy, and the Day After Midnight. With those books as my point of reference, this one didn't have a chance. It's painfully obvious that the Second Saladin is one of Hunter's early works (but believe me...he gets MUCH better). The novel starts out with some great action as Ulu Beg heads across the Mexican Border into SW United States on an unmentioned covert mission to assasinate a major political figure. Enter Paul Chardy, who lived and killed with Beg in Afganistan several years earlier. However, fate entered and Chardy had to double-cross his friend and now must enter back into the world of covert operations to thwart the assasination. Great premise, but lacking in the energy and action that becomes Hunter's trademark in his later works. This novel just seems to kick back and relax. We don't really get to know Beg or Chardy too well, a strength of Hunter's later works as well. Overall, this isn't a bad piece of work, but definitely pales in comparison with Hunter's other novels. If you've read any of the books referenced above, you may want to take a pass on this one.

Major Let Down:
I must say I was disappointed by this book. I will always pick his work up but this one just did not have the punch I have come to expect. I give him credit, he does try to venture out and do new things but this one did not work. I would not spend too much time on this one and move to some of this other work.

Early Work:
The fact that most of the action, in this early work by Hunter, happens off stage is perhaps the most surprising thing about it. For an author, who is at the top of the action genre, this one is frustratingly restrained. But all of the elements he later masters are there- guns, assasins, heroes and villains, and haunted dreams of battles lost.